


Oh Death

by LotharWinchester



Series: Give Me the Truth [5]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Liberty Prime, M/M, Not Beta Read, Original Ending, Sanctuary Hills
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 13:32:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5667832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LotharWinchester/pseuds/LotharWinchester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three months after siding with the Institute, Arthur sees Aiden face to face again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Oh Death

**Author's Note:**

> This Originally was supposed to be the end. I've got an alternate ending idea in the works since this is a feel train and a half. The original again was on my broken computer so I just typed this up in one sitting.( it's 1am so i'm a little tired.) 
> 
> Thank you for all of the Kudos, comments and reviews for this. They really helped me to keep going with this. 
> 
> Disclaimer- I don't own fallout 4, Bethesda does

“I shouldn’t be surprised to see you here.” Arthur’s voice stung as Aiden stopped before him. “He is your son, after all.” 

In his three months there, all of the lines he’d practiced in his head back at the Institute for this moment never made it past his lips. Arthur stood before him, confident in his Power Armor and firmly grasped the grip of his mini gun. He was a vision.

“You’re wearing your Power Armor,” his tone was flat but not defeated, “That’s how you made it through the front lines.” 

Laser fire from Institute weapons and loud machine gun fire from Brotherhood guns filled the silence between them.  A faint reminder of what they should be doing.  “The Institute won’t win.”

Death cries from both sides echoed around them. Arthur’s response to it all was to shift into a more practical fighting stance and to aim his mini gun towards Aiden.

Aiden’s response was different. With each muted cry of  “Long live the Brotherhood” he tried not to think of the faces he could put to them.  Many of the dead and dying were mere children in his eyes. His right hand shook as he unholstered his laser pistol. 

_I never wanted this. any of this…_

He had no doubt that Proctor Ingram, Lancer Captian Kells, Teagan, and many other high ranking Brotherhood members were  most likely dead. If  by some miracle they were alive, they had minutes to escape the Prydwen before Liberty Prime would blow it to pieces. 

Each man fired a clips worth of shots at the other, dodging and weaving to only receive minor damage to their power armor respectively.  By the time Aiden had reloaded four clips worth of ammo, he’d taken far more damage than Arthur. His left arm ached as pieces of his armor chipped and fell to the ground by his feet along with his left field of vision permanently blacked out by several well placed shots.  

Arthur growled low in his throat as he ran out of ammo and switched to one of the many pistols left on his person. He knew the downed vertibird behind him had many weapons to add to his disposal.  The lack of preparedness of his former lover made him pause after he spent another clip’s worth of bullets in Aiden’s general direction.   _What was his goal?_  but another question roared to the surface that had burned in the back of his mind. Where is Octavia? 

After sparing a glance across their battlefield, he targeted Aiden’s  loose armor and fired twelve shots into it until his left arm was completely exposed. The last round sunk into the muscle covering Aiden’s radius and ulna.

He forced any emotion back that wasn’t pure rage as Aiden’s harsh scream echoed between them. The Vault dweller dropped the ammo clip for his rifle onto the ground giving Arthur enough time to grab the cache of weapons from the vertibird. 

Tears of pain streamed down Aiden’s face as he palmed several frag grenades out of his pack. He lobbed a total of four in Arthur’s general direction to provide cover to get behind some of Liberty Prime’s destroyed staging. His non injured hand palmed several stimpacks out of his pack. Shaun’s voice slipped into his head as he took a calming breath.

_“Will you be able to kill him, Father?”_

He chuckled out loud, just as he had then. _“I don’t know, Shaun. But I will be able to buy your units some time.”_

He exhaled heavily and bit down the butt end of his lighter.  _“I can’t lead the Institute Shaun, i’m sorry.”_ Once his fingers clasped around the long fused flare in his pack, he held it between his knees and flicked the silver lighter until it sparked against the fuse. _“Will you do me one last favor? Make sure Octavia is healthy and send her away. Back to Sanctuary with the synth you wanted me to take. Danse and MacCready will make sure they’re both taken care of and loved.”_ He dropped the lighter and lit every remaining flare stick before he bundled them together and tossed them over his protective barrier with all of his might.  _“You know I love you, Shaun. and your father loved you more than anything else in this world.”_

Aiden heard Arthur’s pained grunt as one of the sticks exploded near his feet.  He could still see Shaun’s pained face as he stood to extrapolate his next plan of action.  That was his second mistake. 

Although the flares (and one hidden dynamite stick)  had managed to land near him, the dynamite merely took off a piece of the damaged scaffolding Arthur had been using as cover. He remained nearly unwounded, escaping the blast with minor scratches to his power armor. 

Arthur took his chance when he saw the undamaged side of Aiden’s helm. Static hissed through his comms and blared loudly in his ears. He was forced to drop the pistol in his hands to roughly yank it off.  Arthur’s next shots tore through Aiden’s exposed hand and arm which splattered blood across Aiden’s pack and helm on the ground.

Aiden’s eyes widened with the pain. He held his right hand up in surrender, “Arth-”

 The next volly of shots pierced through the armor on Aiden’s legs, essentially knee capping him through the metal suit.  Arthur rushed forward as the blond fell face first into the hard, broken cement with a long and loud scream of pain. 

The Elder of the Brotherhood firmly gripped the collar of Aiden’s power armor and forced him to bend backwards to look into Arthur’s face.  “Where is _she_?” He almost spat on Aiden’s face as he hauled the injured man closer, “Where is Octavia?” 

More tears streamed down Aiden’s face and mixed with the blood of his broken nose. Arthur angrily glared down at him as his injured right hand disengaged the power armor in sections, starting with his right arm. “Some place safe.” 

“ _Answer me._ ” He hissed and gripped the collar tighter.  Aiden laughed, albeit rough and garbled as his gaze returned to the flares he’d thrown. 

Arthur exhaled through his nose and allowed himself to follow Aiden’s gaze.

His grip went slack and shifted to prop Aiden up as he realized what was so funny. 

The flares still burned brightly around them, blue and white smoke streamed steadily around them as the firefight around them dulled.  

_The limited weapon supply, flares and not dynamite…_ Arthur dropped his gun and quickly felt for a pulse on Aiden’s neck. 

“You never intended to…”  Arthur’s voice shook and he tried to find a non damaged portion of skin to inject stimpacks. He choked when he couldn’t find one, “Why?”

“Because I…”  Aiden coughed and raised his right shoulder. His right arm rose to the center of his chest as his gaze remained over Arthur’s shoulder. “Ad Victoriam, Arthur.”

Arthur turned only to see Liberty Prime take down the Prydwen and nearly all of his remaining soldiers aboard.  Dread sunk into his stomach until  Liberty Prime stopped in mid motion  before his remaining troops and powered down. 

He  returned his gaze to Aiden only to find his eyes, void of life, staring at the rings he’d added to his holotag chain.  “No..”  His fingers quickly stripped the torso piece of his armor from his frame to prep for the amount of stimpacks he planned on using.  Holotapes fell to the ground as he continued to deftly strip armor from Aiden’s legs. Through the tears forming in his eyes, he could tell they were the tapes of music the older man had blared through out the Prydwen from the command deck.  One hand roughly fisted around three Super Stimpacks and injected them around Aiden’s still heart. 

“ _Fuck!_ ” He could hear himself gasping for breath as he fumbled through his own pack. “Please don’t…” 

Arthur continued until he burned through all of his Super Stimpacks. Even though Aiden’s eyes still hadn’t moved and his chest remained immobile he kept injecting them into Aiden’s chest.  

He gasped for breath as his black hair clung to his head due to sweat and the black spots faded  from his vision.  

The only thing that had changed was the fact that the lower half of Aiden’s leg were now reattached to the upper portion by more than just a few layers of skin.

Arthur sat back on his heels and  looked at the scattered holotapes. Most were of music from  Aiden’s time. Elvis, Nat King Cole, Aretha Franklin and many others filled his vision. Two tapes, however stood out from the rest.  

He recognized the first. Hi Honey! was written in his late husband’s neat script and he’d heard Aiden sob to that tape dozens of times. While the other, written in Aiden’s chicken scratch penmanship, was his name.  Never had the sight of his first name filled him with such pain. 

Just as he slipped the holotape in Aiden’s Pip-Boy, and alarm sounded and he scanned the area for anything moving. Nothing moved as the alarm continued and Arthur hurriedly resumed injecting regular Stimpacks into Aiden’s body.The holotape crackled to a start.

_“Arthur, If you’re listening to this I’m your prisoner or i’ve.. well…”_ Arthur choked as he injected three stimpacks in rapid secession into Aiden’s right thigh, _“ I had hoped to convince you to stop, Even though deep down I know you won’t, or take you prisoner. If the Institute and the Brotherhood teamed up, it would be better for everyone…”_ He let a frustraited growl pass his lips as he shifted Aiden closer to his chest. For a better  view of his wounds, he reasoned with himself, _“Shaun is dying, Arthur. He’s asked me to become the next leader but I can’t. Not after what i’ve seen them  do to Reclaimed Synths and the people they take from the Commonwealth.”_  

For a moment, he thought he felt a pulse and rested Aiden’s torso on the ground. He’d seen Cade preform CPR on one of the knights in the med bay and tried to remember how to configure his hands,  _“Seperately, Neither the Brotherhood nor the Institute are good for the Commonwealth…. Arthur, I’ve set an evacuation alarm in the Institute once Liberty Prime’s powered down. The virus they made wasn’t all that hard to hack.”_

His hands faltered as Octavia’s happy cooed on the tape. _“Looks like Octavia would like to say hi to her father._ ”  He could almost hear the smile form on Aiden’s face at their child as she babbled incoherently on the holotape.  _“I’m sorry.”_ Arthur pulled away from Aiden’s mouth, oblivious to the blood that had gathered in his neatly trimmed beard _. “Octavia is going to be in Sanctuary. If we make it through, we can go together.”_

Arthur gathered the scattered holotapes and shoved them in his pack along with his helm.   _“Please know that I love you. I love you Arthur.”_

Arthur slid his arms  underneath Aiden’s limp frame and rested his head on his shoulder.  It took a moment but he stood and turned towards Sanctuary and where his remaining soldiers were told to regroup. 

* * *

 

Even as he gave orders and the Institute burned before his eyes, he felt nothing but the weight of Aiden’s body in his arms.  None of the Knights or Paladins said anything and referred to the very battered but living captain Kells for orders. 

It took a few days for Arthur to make it to Sanctuary. The Paladin’s that traveled with him waited well before the gates  and turned back only when they closed behind him. 

The main road into the settlement was lined with gardens. Fresh fruits and other foods were just barely starting to bud. Many of the settlers emerged from the bomb damaged houses to watch as Arthur continued on towards the center, oblivious to their shocked gazes. 

He was still a mess appearance wise since he hadn’t changed or bathed since the battle.  The only thing he’d done besides walking was the effort he’d made to close Aiden’s eyes. 

He recognized Danse in the common settler garb as he rushed forward. The man hot on his heels let his cap fly off  and held Octavia in his arms. 

Arthur knelt down and placed Aiden’s hands together on his chest as Danse stopped before them.  

He stood when the shorter man behind Danse stopped beside the former Paladin.

“You son of a bitch he-”

“MacCready.” Danse  cut him off before he could start.  

Octavia  reached out for Arthur and he gently took her in his filthy hands. She stared at his dirty beard and face before she wrapped her tiny arms around his neck.  

Arthur sobbed as she babbled into his ear  over and over “Da-da.”

**Author's Note:**

> The original had Arthur dying and was about half this length. leave any comments for this fic or on other prompts you want to see here or on my tumblr. (jeffersonismywintersoldier)


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